The Big ONE

We all have the dream of the big lunker bass on the end of the line. With pressure mounting, that the line just might break. No it doesn’t have to be a dream. I do daydream about it in between my carpet cleaning jobs…

Yeh I know, carpet cleaning is not near as sexy as fishing but I still love the company I work for- carpetcleanerbirminghamal.com they work me hard that is why I daydream about that one magical day when the fishing God’s smiled at me.

In 2014 we were trolling in a private pond/ lake (15 acres) owned for 125 years by a single family. this particular gem had been fished sparing and had a fantastic mix of large and small mouthed bass.

I had to pinch myself, just realizing how big the bass were in this pond. So here is the set up… Bait is not your normal rattle trap or worm. We are going to use the hand sized brim we just caught and hook it in the tail at the base.

The wonderful thing about this pond are that all the hot spots not only have flag markings but each have their own pallet paradise submerged for the bass to hide in. We troll ever so slowly as we split the markers between the pallet coves. One minute and ten seconds in the rod yanks and stops ..a massive bump, then BAM! a hit!

So tempted to grab the rod, but history tell us to let that large mouth turn that brim around in its massive mouth so the hook can be set properly…. 20 seconds seems like an eternity with the drag screaming. YANK….. it on… and the battle is on. The harder I pull the deeper he goes. This bass didn’t get this big by being stupid. He is searching for a branch to wrap around. All in Vain .. all in vain.

I tighten the drag and pull him ever so close to the boat, wedge the rod under my armpit and grab my handy net with my free hand. He is tired barely moving outside the boat. One quick scoop and victory, 9.7 lbs of glory. Deep green stripes remind me of a watermelon… and that is about the size of this massive creature.